''First Two Pages of Frankenstein'' is the ninth studio album by the American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band the National, released on April 28, 2023, by

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD af ...

. The album was produced by The National at Long Pond studio in upstate New York and features guest appearances from

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, '' Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and '' Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical accla ...

, and

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bo ...

Background and recording

After the release of '' I Am Easy to Find'' (2019) and the cancellation of The National's touring as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the band members retreated from each other. Lead singer and lyricist

Matt Berninger Matthew Donald Berninger (, born February 13, 1971) is an American singer-songwriter, primarily known as the frontman and lyricist of indie rock band The National. In 2014, he also formed the EL VY project with Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls and ...

released the solo record '' Serpentine Prison''.

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in col ...

, now living in France, worked on film scores and classical compositions.

Aaron Dessner Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band the National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums; a co-founder of the indie ...

produced two albums by

and recorded the highly collaborative ''

How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? ''How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?'' is the second studio album by American indie duo Big Red Machine, which consists of musicians Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon. It was released on August 27, 2021, via 37d03d and Jagjaguwar record label ...

'', the second studio album with

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...

Justin Vernon Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the primary songwriter and frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. Known for his distinct falsetto voi ...

as part of their side-project

Big Red Machine The Big Red Machine is a nickname for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team that dominated the National League from 1970 to 1979 and is widely recognized as being among the best in baseball history. The team won six National League West Division tit ...

Bryan Bryan may refer to: Places United States * Bryan, Arkansas * Bryan, Kentucky * Bryan, Ohio * Bryan, Texas * Bryan, Wyoming, a ghost town in Sweetwater County in the U.S. state of Wyoming * Bryan Township (disambiguation) Facilities and structur ...

and

Scott Devendorf Scott Devendorf is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the bass guitarist for the American indie rock band The National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Devendorf is also a member of the indie rock project LNZNDR ...

assisted other musicians with making their music. Work on a ninth National album was initially stalled while Berninger navigated "a very dark spot where I couldn't come up with lyrics or melodies at all. Even though we'd always been anxious whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end." Bryce Dessner said that the band eventually "managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band." According to Aaron Dessner, a turning point came with the lead single "Tropic Morning News", which was co-written with Berninger's wife, Carin Besser, and partly recorded live in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

: "When Matt came in with that song in the depths of his depression, it felt like a turning point for us. It's almost Dylan-esque in its lyrics and it's so much fun to play; everything suddenly felt like it was coming alive again." The album was produced by the National at Aaron Dessner's Long Pond studio in

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. It features guest vocalists

and Taylor Swift. Additional recording sessions took place at numerous studios and locations across the United States and Europe. The album also features the

London Contemporary Orchestra The London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), founded in 2008 by Hugh Brunt and Robert Ames, is an ensemble of young musicians whose stated aim is "to explore and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience". LCO staged its inaugural season at ...

, who recorded sessions at The Empire Studio in London in May 2022, and at RAK Studios in London in August 2022.

Artwork

Created by the design company

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aro ...

, the front cover of ''First Two Pages of Frankenstein'' features a photograph of a young boy holding a

mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles ...

's head. The photograph was taken by the boy's father, John Solimine, an illustrator and longtime friend of vocalist

. Solimine and Berninger met as

dishwashers A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ty ...

in a

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

restaurant. Solimine has previously worked with the National on several concert posters and alongside Berninger on illustrations for his side project

EL VY EL VY is an American indie rock duo that consists of Matt Berninger (lead vocalist of The National) and Brent Knopf (founding member of Ramona Falls and Menomena). The duo released their debut album, '' Return to the Moon'', in October 201 ...

. In possible relation to the album's title, Solimine released a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

titled ''Does Frankenstein Get Hungry?'' in 2018. Bass guitarist

, a former

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for publishe ...

who works closely on the band's album covers, described the mannequin as "not a

phrenological Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

head".

Release and promotion

On August 19, 2022, Aaron Dessner revealed in an interview with

Laura Barton Laura Barton (born 1977) is an English journalist and writer. She writes mainly for ''The Guardian'', and wrote a novel, ''Twenty-One Locks'', published in 2010. Biography Barton was born in and grew up in the village of Newburgh in Lancash ...

in the ''i'' newspaper that a new National album was scheduled for 2023. A standalone single, "Weird Goodbyes", featuring Bon Iver, was released three days later. The National first teased the album on social media on January 13, 2023, with a video of Berninger reading

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

's 1818 novel ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific exp ...

'' on a piano bench. The posts linked to a password-protected page on their official website. The unlocked page featured an image of an open book with text mirroring Shelley's novel, but written as a letter addressed "To Mrs. Bridgers, England" and mentioning people named "Taylor" and "Uncle Sufjan". ''First Two Pages of Frankenstein'' was officially announced on January 18, 2023, with the release of the album's lead single, "Tropic Morning News", and the announcement of a supporting tour starting in May 2023. The tour will feature the opening acts

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...

Soccer Mommy Sophia Regina Allison (born May 27, 1997), better known by her stage name Soccer Mommy, is an American singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. History Born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1997 to Michelle, an elementary school teacher, and Jo ...

the Beths The Beths are a New Zealand indie rock band, formed in Auckland in 2014. The group principally consists of lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck. Meeting at the Universi ...

, and

Bartees Strange Bartees Leon Cox Jr., (born January 30, 1989) known by his stage name Bartees Strange, is an English-born American musician. Cox was born in Ipswich, England, raised in Mustang, Oklahoma, and is now based in Washington D.C. Early life Cox was ...

. A second single, "New Order T-Shirt", was released on February 23, 2023. The release was accompanied by the sale of a limited edition T-shirt created in partnership with New Order. A third single, "Eucalyptus", was released on March 22, 2023. The fourth single, "Your Mind Is Not Your Friend", was released on April 12, 2023. " The Alcott" was released as the fifth single to Italian radio stations on April 28, 2023. It was released to US triple A radio on May 1, 2023.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 79, based on 21 reviews. Andrew Trendell of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' gave the album a perfect 5-star rating, deeming it the band's best album since ''

Trouble Will Find Me ''Trouble Will Find Me'' is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band The National, released on May 17, 2013, on 4AD. Produced by band members Aaron and Bryce Dessner, the album features appearances from St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten ...

''. James Mellen of '' Clash'' praised the album's "level of fluidity and richness stitched together with the highest calibre of performance, production and songwriting. Like Frankenstein and his monster, the commitment to the design and blueprint of this record is incredible; every minute detail, sound, glitch, has been selected with the utmost care by The National". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

''s Clayton Purdom called it "a remarkable reassertion of the band's potency". Reviewing the album for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

, editor

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

declared that, "Melodies aren't absent, but they're not forceful, they're sung as suggestions. Forward movement is achieved through shifts in texture and feel, momentum created through layers of harmony and weaving acoustic instruments through electronic beddings." In a mixed review, Grayson Haver Currin of ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

'' called it "a sometimes-striking record that suggests new ground without actually reaching it". Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' questioned if the band "might be stagnating with this release, which has less of the daring ideas they've explored on their last few".

Track listing

Personnel

The National – performance *

– orchestration *

Bryan Devendorf Bryan Devendorf is an American drummer. He is best known as a founding member of the indie rock band The National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Devendorf is also a member of the experimental rock bands Pfarmers and LNZNDRF. ...

* Benjamin Lanz – touring member * Kyle Resnick – touring member Featured vocalists *

Additional musicians * Thomas Bartlett *

Lisa Hannigan Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish musician, singer, composer, and voice actress. She began her musical career as a member of Damien Rice's band. Since beginning her solo career in 2007 she has released three albums: ''S ...

* Curt Kiser * James McAlister *

So Percussion Sō Percussion is an American percussion quartet formed in 1999 and based in New York City. Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Cha-Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for th ...

(Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Teuting, Eric Cha-Beach) * Mina Tindle * Andi Toma * Jan St. Werner Technical personnel * Jonathan Low – recording, mixing * Bella Blasko – recording *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bish ...

– mastering *

Steve Fallone Steve Fallone is a New York-based mastering engineer. He won at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compo ...

– mastering * James McAlister – additional production *

Tony Berg Anthony Rains "Tony" Berg (born October 21, 1954) is an American musician, record producer, and A&R representative, in which role he has been described as an "industry guru". Berg's music career began in the late 1970s as a session guitarist wh ...

– additional vocal production * Sean O'Brien – additional vocal recording * Will Maclellan – additional vocal recording * Adam Armstrong – additional recording *

David Chalmin David Chalmin is a French composer, producer, sound engineer and musician. He's a member of the trio Triple Sun. His collaborations extend from classical music to experimental rock: Katia and Marielle Labèque, Thom Yorke, The National (band), ...

– additional recording * Greg Giorgio – additional recording *

Peter Katis Peter Katis is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, audio engineer, mixer, and musician. Katis is best known for working with alternative and indie rock bands. He works primarily out of his own residential studio, Tarquin Studios, ...

– additional recording * Matt Latchaw – additional recording * Jake Merritt – additional recording * Matt Poirier – additional recording * Ber Quinn – additional recording * Ben Rice – additional recording * Chad Wahlbrink – additional recording * Jeremy Murphy – orchestra recording * Liam Hebb – assistant orchestra recording * Fiona Cruickshank – orchestra recording * Laura Beck – assistant orchestra recording Artwork *

(Luke Hayman, Shigeto Akiyama, Gracia Lee) – design * John Solimine – cover photo of Lou Solimine * Josh Goleman – band photo London Contemporary Orchestra * Robert Ames – conductor * Harry George – copyist * Cassandra Gurling – recording project manager * Amy Hinds – orchestra manager * Charlotte Marino – assistant orchestra manager *

Galya Bisengalieva Galya Bisengalieva is a Kazakh-British violinist. Improvisor, collaborator and leader of the London Contemporary Orchestra based in London. Biography Born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Galya studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of ...

– 1st violin * Marianne Haynes – 1st violin * Venetia Jollands – 1st violin * Raja Halder – 1st violin * Charis Jenson – 1st violin * Ellie Consta – 1st violin * Kirsty Mangan – 1st violin * Nicole Crespo O'Donoghue – 1st violin * Zahra Benyounes – 1st violin * Agata Daraskaite – 1st violin * Alexandra Caldon – 1st violin * Anna Ovsyanikova – 1st violin * Kirsty Mangan – 1st violin * Juan Gonzalez – 1st violin * Anna De Bruin – 1st violin * Matthew Bain – 1st violin * Gillon Cameron – 2nd violin * Hazel Correa – 2nd violin * Claire Hazelton – 2nd violin * Guy Button – 2nd violin * Mathhew Bain – 2nd violin * Radhika De Saram – 2nd violin * Mandhira De Saram – 2nd violin * Radhika De Saram – 2nd violin * Miles Brett – 2nd violin * Claire Kennington – 2nd violin * Akiko Ishikawa – 2nd violin * Jonny Byers – cello * Laura Moody – cello * Rebecca Burden – cello * Ashok Klouda – cello * Sergio Serra – cello * Peteris Sokolovskis – cello * Max Ruisi – cello * Louise McMonagle – cello * Daisy Vatalaro – cello

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2023 albums The National (band) albums 4AD albums